My main reaction to this show was: "huh...what did he say?" Seriously, maybe it was me, but while 40 percent of this show was hilarious, the other 60% was spent in deep analysis trying to decipher the incomprehensible "cockney accent". And I'm from the Bronx for Christ's sake! The english language doesn't get much more screwed up than that!
Next time I watch BBC America, I'll have to turn the volume up to max and plug in my headphones.
Wow reading the comments on this thread were depressing. As an insular yank (although from the south so if you called me a yankee Id be offended) that loves British, Irish, Australian and New Zealand programming (thank you acorn) I find European accents are generally easier to decipher than my own countrymen. I work with a girl from Boston and she told me she lost her "kakhis" I had to ask if she meant car keys or tan pants, A Bronx co worker told me that she was watching Law and Order and they were in the pawn shop she used to hang out in after school but it sounded like porn shop to me and my black co workers have developed a manner of speaking that I'm told is specifically for the purpose of others not understanding.
As for the British vs English thing you will have to cut us some slack, depending on who we are speaking to so many of us have been admonished that we are using the incorrect term that we honestly don't know which one is currently the least offensive. I made the grave mistake of asking a woman where in England she was from and she very snottily replied "its Great Britain not England and I'm from London" so I started using Great Britain only to be reprimanded by another that it was England.